International traffic boosts Malaysian airports

Strength of low-cost international demand props up MAHB results

Traffic at Malaysia's airports climbed in May 2014, but only because of a rise in demand for international flights.

According to the latest data from Malaysian Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), passenger traffic across the country edged up 2.1%, from to 6.58 million in May 2013 to 6.72 million in May 2014. But almost of this growth was in generated by international flights. International traffic expanded 4.0% during the month, compared a 0.5% increase in domestic traffic.

This disparity was even more pronounced at the country's main air gateway, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Here, overall passenger movements grew just 1% in May 2014, but international traffic climbed 4.5% while domestic passenger numbers decreased 6.6%.

And divided by terminal, all the growth (+11.5%) was generated by the low-cost hubs, LCCT or KLIA2, with the main KLIA terminal seeing a 7.9% drop in traffic.

Brought to you by TravelDailyAsia.com